Love. What is it? Does it exist? Do you have to believe in the existence of the soul in order to believe in it?

a great effusion of outwardness.

This condition is a series of biochemical responses, triggering an emotional cascade, impairing normal functioning.

love is the acceptance of a person’s essence, both good and bad. Some people call that their soul, others call it their fundamental personality. I call it the core person.

(For religious folk, the soul is really only known to God, not to us.)

Love is that which is the author and the product of two united with a single mind toward that good purpose.

Love is not an issue where there is only One cause that one is either love or he is not and love needs a channel by which it must flow.

If the purpose is not good from beginning, then Love was not present at the beginning.

Though the end result will work out for the purposes of Love.
Cause Love is the Only thing that last,
And Love is the essense of Life.

Love is a verb, yes it exists, and I don’t understand the last question.

@kess well thanks for taking the time to comment but what you just posted is exactly why I find it a difficult concept to grasp…In the first bit I dont understand exactly what it is your saying and for the “love is the essence of life” what is it you mean by that and on what logic do you base it?

@troubleinharlem yeh I could have worded the question better and maybe added some punctuation.

@noodle Actually the concept is not beyond the minds of children.

Consider this, if there is no love in this world then Life cannot be supported at all and every thing will be dead, or like the grave whose way is to take and never concerns itself with giving.

You see unlike the grave (death) Life is all about giving and sharing,so one you give to others and others will give to you, not from out of any other obligation other than the knowledge that , that IS the way of LIFE.

Take again for example, are you here because of some reward for something that you hve done?
No. you are here because of LIFE, given to you freely, without any expectation from you at all.

So now that you know that, all one would want to do is to be that LIFE also, and the way is LOVE.

Just as you receive, just so give and even more so.

Love definitely exists.

It is the feeling that you have for another human being that means that you would do almost anything to ensure their happiness.

You can feel love for family, friends, or romantic love.

What makes the latter different is that it starts off with a chemical reaction. A measurable phenomenon.

“Strong romantic love will cause powerful chemical changes in the brain which give a person an overall amazing feeling of well being and euphoria. This is especially present during the first phases of love but can last for many years afterward. We all know that love will eventually settle into a new phase after a period of time, but the amazing beginnings of romantic love are like fire works on the fourth of July! ”

Folsom Telegraph

I don’t think love is a feeling. I think live is a decision to commit regardless of you feelings which can change with hormones, medications or time.
Love may start with a feeling, but it sustains with a decision.

Similar to @Judi, I believe love starts with chemicals, discoveries and commitment but is sustained by affirmations, consistency, trust, respect, admiration, positive challenges and fondness of memories.

@Neizvestnaya @Judi thats interesting and perhaps something I can understand…I always find myself at a bit of a loss and wondering if perhaps I am missing some key emotions when a lot of people talk about love because even though I would claim to love some of the people in my life It doesnt render me in anyway incapable of reason or logic or making choices like some people say that it does.

@noodle_poodle: There is crazy passionate infatuated love that sometimes makes a person gloss over some of the things you keep a level head about, maybe that. You have an edge is you can pull that off each time.

well perhaps though it is frustrating trying to be patient with people who experience a more irrational kind of love as I can help but think…use your head and sort yourself out ya know…and also conversly I wonder if I do ever actually love people If I remain in some way detached….I wonder if the people who experience the kind of world moving type of love actually do so or just want to so badly that convince themselves that they do…I suppose much like everything its all just theoretical.

Love is an emotional response to another person (or a thing). I don’t understand why the presence of a soul would have to be necessary in order to experience it.

“Do you have to believe in the existence of the soul in order to believe in it?”

Absolutely not. Wonderful as it is, it’s a biological phenomenon.

I appreciate a good question.

Many times, when you ask another, “What is love?” (and what you seek is a definition), the last thing you can expect is a definition. They will begin, “Love is like . . .”, or, “Love is when . . .” They might wax either philosophical or poetic, but neither of those is very precise. They might offer up emotional examples that take on the wide-eyed, whispered reverence for euphoric states – and in the end, you will always sense the absence of the well defined.

Love is neither an emotion or an affectation. Those are gray areas in in individuals who have not labored toward clarity and definition of self.

Love is actually less emotional than mental (and here I mean mental as a state of willful communication.) Love is a contractual agreement between two or more parties. A promise of actions is accompanied by the conditions under which the promise is deemed justifiable.

An example of this is when Jesus told his disciples that they would be his friends so long as they did what he told them to do. (John 15:14)

Love is always an intelligent choice. One does not ‘fall’ into love, as that entails a failure of will and choice.

As to the soul, try to think of it in terms of an intelligent identity. While the words we speak and write in our communications with others are tangible enough, it is neither of those but rather the intangible concepts behind them that are communicated. I can say to you, “beauty” and neither the spoken nor written version will enter your mind. The concept will be received and incorporated, however. The physical brain can be impaired, and the senses can be dysfunctional, and still the intangible concept will connect each intangible identity to the other.

Love is a very strong feeling that cannot be explained. It’s a feeling that causes you to want and yearn for some one or something more each day. You may not believe in it now but once you experience it (physically & emotionally) you’ll want it more and more (and I’m not talking about love from a family member).

@starsofeight

“Love is always an intelligent choice.”

Boy, I have to disagree with that. If it is, some people go about it in a very unintelligent manner!

Love is different things to different people but I believe that it exists, for me, and that although it’s just a bunch of neurological impulses, so is everything and that doesn’t diminish it for me one bit. I have loved many people in my life, not all that love has lasted but I know when I feel it – it hurts and it makes your chest want to burst and it makes you want to lift up your head and open your mouth wide and scream with joy and with pain, with fear and with gratitude.

This is going to be borderline pseudoscientific, but:

In quantum mechanics, anything—from a single electron to a human being to the entire universe—can be described as a wavefunction that evolves over time. The wavefunction is actually a wave, and if you square the amplitude (height) of the wave at any point in spacetime, you get a probability. So if it’s an electron, the wavefunction, squared, gives you the probability that the electron exists at any point in space or time.

Wavefunctions are weird because they obey the quantum uncertainty principle, entanglement, and other non-intuitive laws of quantum mechanics. But I think they’re actually a good way to think about souls, and by extension, love.

I don’t think “souls” exist in any traditional sense. I think our consciousness is an emergent property of our brain activity. But, this brain activity can be described by a wavefunction. And, just like overlapping waves, your “soul” wavefunction can sync up with someone else’s “soul” wavefunction. When you’re in love, it really feels like your souls are in sync in some deep way, and I think there actually is some sort of physical underpinning for this feeling.

Love does exist. Call it biochemical, spritual or otherwise but I definietly do know it exists. For you mothers out there, I am not talking about the love for your husband really, but think back on how you felt when that baby now came into the world and looked at you and cried for nurishment, and when you first gave it to them….wasn’t that love? What about when you had your very first crush and you would walk the mile, battle anyone who you knew you couldnt win or jump off a high building, just to see that person happy…...wasn’t that love? Call those things spritual, or chemical…but I think that it is beyond our comprehension. I can only answer to if it exists and it definitly does!

There’s a scientific and a romantic explanation. The latter sounds a lot better to me!

@EGGIE I would call that instinct myself…but then I have no children and therefore no grounds on which to argue.

Love exist. Everyone is capable of love no matter what they believe in. Most people don’t know what loves is though.

Technically and according to the Greek template. You have to believe in the soul force to define Agape specifically. There is also Eros as well as Philio. Intimate love between two people and brotherly love for kinsmen, friends and humanity in general. Agape is different.

There are four types of love: romantic love which is called eros, brotherly love which is called phileo, and storge which is called affection. The highest is Agape which is the love of God to humankind and God wants to deposit His kind of love in our hearts – that happens at spiritual reconnection. This Agape love affirms and confirms and heals. We all need this!!! Life changes at that point. Everything becomes new. You see things from God’s perspective then not the old me first way.