Arthur Brooks

There's all kinds of really fascinating neuroscience of falling in love, but it's still a mystery.

I tell you, the neuroscientists who are doing this cutting-edge research, they can fall hard in love just like anybody else.

They can be like, I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened.

Yes, you do.

You wrote that paper.

Right?

But still, I mean, it's like, I teach this stuff to my students at the Harvard Business School about the neuroscience of falling in love, but I don't understand this relationship with my wife.

I just love her.

You know, I just, it's like, okay, yeah, a lot of oxytocin and vasopressin and, you know, and there's some amount of dopamine and norepinephrine involved and there are drops of serotonin when you're fighting.

That's not it.

It's because it's this deep metaphysical experience.

Most religions believe, as Montaigne of Diotima, Socrates' prophetess suggested, that romantic love is the beginning of an antenna to the divine.

And most religions believe that if you're in a serious marriage and you deny your spouse love, you're denying your spouse God's love.

That's how right-brained and complex this actually is.

You can understand it plenty well.

Not really, I know.

I know, I know.

It's interesting too, you know, and Sam and I have had one conversation more or less along these lines.

He's the most soulful atheist I've ever met.