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How does love work?

Lark

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This is not a general question about love (I'm not meaning to trick you with the title) so much as it is about what books have you read on the topic? Do you consider there to be any authorities on the topic?
 

Mole

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Love works through menstrual bonding.

Both males and females have a menstrual cycle, only the amplitude of women's menstrual cycle is higher than men's. And of course men have no menses, but men's bodies go through the same cycle as women.

We fall in love when our menstrual cycles are in synch. And interestingly when we are in olfactory contact for a substantial period, our menstrual cycles start cycling together. and we form menstrual bonding to prepare us for the care and raising of children.

The medical research on menstrual bonding was carries out by the Walter and Eliza Medical Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
 

Abcdenfp

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Glad that the people who dont get the thread got their posts in early.
When you say "work" what do you mean .. the mechanism of it? My favorite description of love is akin to the velveteen rabbits segment on what is "real"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
 

Lark

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When you say "work" what do you mean .. the mechanism of it? My favorite description of love is akin to the velveteen rabbits segment on what is "real"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

I was really just looking for people's recommended reads on the topic and used a title I thought would interest people enough to read the thread.
 
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I bought a book on this subject years ago. I read it twice. It is made of more than 250 pages.

I draw a conclusion it is biological and chemical.

 

Abcdenfp

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Glad that the people who dont get the thread got their posts in early.
Lol..sorry but for what your really asking I have no contribution. Except maybe sperm wars was an interesting read on mate selection but that is not really "love" which is what your asking for.
 

Tengri

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Terry Pratchett comes to mind:

“Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events -- the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there -- that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous.”

Love is likely fated or miraculous in some form or another, but it's also just a mess of factors that just as tidily fit under either of these monikers.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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I think it's caused by invisible flying unicorns farting on your head. The unicorn gas contains a powerful narcotic that throws people into a stupor. Invisible flying unicorns are most active in late spring and early-to-mid summer.
 

Lark

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I think it's caused by invisible flying unicorns farting on your head. The unicorn gas contains a powerful narcotic that throws people into a stupor. Invisible flying unicorns are most active in late spring and early-to-mid summer.

I watched Happy! on Netflix too but I think its imaginary.
 

Norrsken

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Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?
 

Siúil a Rúin

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I think you want a systematic, abstracted description of how love works that generally applies to everyone? Or is that not quite it? When I think of the way a dog loves other dogs and people, it is based on the specific person and circumstance and is simple and unending. I think it works differently which each person. I don't read that much about relationships so maybe can't contribute that much to this thread. A lot of books and seminars on relationships are very off-putting to me, so I haven't valued them that much. I feel like the answer is more instinctual and found in nature. It's kind of like all the parenting books that come up with the latest theory, the big revelation on how to care for babies that no one has figured out yet in millions of years, and then it turns out to put a bunch of people into therapy later on. The more successful path would likely to learn to trust our own inner instincts that have developed for millions of years. Listening inside more clearly we find truth that flashy new theories distort. I see in Western culture a tendency to distrust the natural self, perhaps the "sinful self", and to rely on being transformed, learning, being imprinted more properly from the outside, but I think it's a misstep at its core.
 
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