Page 363 - The Truth Landscape Format 2020 with next section introductions-compressed

In romantic love, when two people have sex, oxytocin is released, which helps bond the relationship. Oxytocin is also associated with mother/infant bonding,
uterine contractions during labour in childbirth and the "let down" reflex necessary for breastfeeding.
Vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone, is another chemical that has been associated with the formation of long-term relationships. Oxytocin and vasopressin
interfere with the dopamine and norepinephrine pathways, which might explain why passionate love fades as attachment grows.
Endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, also play a key role in long-term relationships. They produce a general sense of well-being, including feeling
soothed, peaceful and secure.

Serotonin A shortage of this brain chemical is widely associated with depression. Antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are designed to increase serotonin
levels, as can pleasant dinner conversations with your mate. In animal studies, high levels of serotonin encourage selectivity in mates while lower amounts
are associated with less discriminating choices of mates and overly aggressive sexual behaviour.

Serotonin increases when you are feeling good about yourself, loving someone and being loved are among the best ways to feel that way.

Another possible explanation for the intense focus and idealising that occurs in the attraction stage of love, comes from researchers at University College
London. They discovered that people in love have lower levels of serotonin and also that neural circuits associated with the way we assess others are
suppressed. These lower serotonin levels are the same as those found in people with obsessive-compulsive disorders, possibly explaining why those in love
"obsess" about their partner.

Love Junkies
There are those who may be addicted to that love "high." They need that amphetamine-like rush of dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine. Because
the body builds up a tolerance to these chemicals, it begins to take more and more to give love junkies that high. They go through relationship after relationship
to get their fix.
We Express Love Through the Power of Attraction

Within the brain, every mental activity consists of neutrons (electrically neutral subatomic particles) firing in a certain sequence. An "Attractor" is an
association of links that can overwhelm weaker ones. The limbic brain (i.e. the emotional brain) contains its emotional attractors, encoded early in life. If the
early experience of a limbic network reflects healthy emotional experience, its attractors will serve as reliable guides to the world of workable relationships.

In human beings, an attractor's influence is not confined to its mind of origin. The limbic brain sends energy of emotion, in this case love, outward. Limbic
resonance joins human minds together in a continuous exchange of energy signals and every brain is part of the network that shares information.

Limbic Attractors exert energy not only within the brain that produces them, but also on the limbic networks of others, calling compatible memories,
emotional states and styles to each of them. Through the limbic transmission of emotional energy, a person can attract others into his emotional world. All of Page363
us, when we engage in this transmission and receiving of emotional energy, can fall under the influence of another's emotional mind.