SCIENCE OF LOVE

THE SCIENCE OF LOVE Our experiences in life are understood thru the intellect. If the intellect is clear and we are deeply seated in Mindful Awareness all experiences are understood and experienced as reflections of the Source of Loving Consciousness. If the intellect is obsessed and clouded with beliefs and stress, then the experiences can be reflective of the layers of belief and stresses that the mind and body have accumulated.

There are many scientists today studying the effects of Love and what happens to the brain when an individual experiences thoughts of love.

The studies include all kinds of thoughts about Love -- romantic or passionate love, maternal love, unconditional love. Scientists from the USA at Syracuse University, combined with other team members in Switzerland and China, used MRI technology to find the commonalities of brain processes that go beyond any cultural conditioning or bias when people think thoughts of love.

How did they do this? Simply by taking MRI scans of people from all over the world who were exposed to pictures of their beloved or their child, which would generate thoughts of romantic love, maternal and paternal love; pictures of another person, which would generate another reading of how the brain acts in relationship to others; and by reading the scans of a cognitive functioning task, such as numeric counting backwards, which would generate a neutral brain function.

The active and interactive play of the brain was then documented.

These teams of scientists found many different areas of the brain work together during the experience of Love to release many neurotransmitters and chemicals that promote an experience of greater well-being. These chemicals, such as cortisol, dopamine and oxytocin, have been linked to human experiences that include a sense of heightened reward and motivation, a building of greater trust, an increase our cognitive functioning, help with our attention and focus, and also reduce pain, sadness, fear and anxiety.

The MRI research about Love indicated that as many as twelve areas of the brain worked together. The higher order thinking regions of the brain were activated in love. This included the areas of the brain related to self-representation (this self-representation includes how we perceive ourselves and others in relationship to ourselves), our attention, our body image, and our social cognition (which has to do with our interaction with others). The research showed that the participants did not have just an emotional response to love, but a

cognitive process as well. When talking to participants later, the researchers found that their experience of well being went hand in hand with the thoughts about the pictures. A marvelous “love� network in the brain was observed. The researchers discovered that this network is triggered by conscious cognitive choices.

When we think a thought of love, such as in the practice of lovingkindness meditation, we just used our cognitive abilities - our power of conscious choice. No picture was needed for us just then. No MRI. Just the simplicity of choice. All the beneficial effects that scientists are looking at would have been generated through our thought, whether we consciously experience it or not. With meditation we have a simple effective tool to activate lovingkindness any time or place. It just takes a choice.