A human being has met another human being of the opposite sex and is attracted to him or her by the conscious or unconscious memories which his or her physical and mental make up brings back. An organic compulsion drives a man to seek a certain woman who is to be his sexual mate. We say then that the man is in love. What is the tangible, observable, measurable meaning of the condition of being in love? To understand this clearly we must bear in mind the principle which modern psychology is gradually adopting, that of the unity of the organism.
The Organism is a Unit which cannot, except for reasons of pure convenience, be split into entities of a contrasted character, such as body and mind, matter and soul, etc. To every physical phenomenon corresponds a simultaneous mental manifestation and vice versa. The body is the tangible[Pg 50] aspect, the mind, the intangible aspect of the organism.
Nor can any scientific distinction be drawn between the so-called grossness of the body and the spiritual quality of the mind.
Nor can we establish in the body absolute lines of cleavage between the various organs, heart, stomach, liver or sexual organs. They are all closely interrelated and there again we find a profound unity of action. When the nerves of the "life division" of the autonomic nervous system are set working, the pupil will be contracted, the saliva flow, the heart beat more slowly, the stomach secrete gastric juice and churn food, the intestines push digested food toward the rectum, and the sexual organs fill up with blood.
When the "safety nerves" are in action the pupil is dilated, the saliva scarce, the heart beats faster, gastric activities cease or become reversed (vomiting), the intestines either stop their activity or are affected by diarrhea and the sexual organs are emptied of blood. Any stimulation applied to any of those organs will produce the specific stimulation indicated above in All The Other Organs, tho in varying degrees.
In other words perfect peace and safety promote all the activities of the "life nerves," danger and[Pg 51] fear promote all the activities of the "safety nerves." Peace and safety build up the body and assure the continuance of the race. Danger and fear stop all the activities which are not directly concerned with fight or flight, hence weaken the organism and stop the sex life.
Peace and safety represented by the mental and physical fetishes of the mate toward whom we are driven by an organic compulsion are bound to produce in us most gratifying results.
The sight, smell and taste of good food, the sight of pleasant objects, the sound of good music, etc., produce a powerful stimulation.
Love's Stimulation, reaching us, as we shall see in another chapter, thru all the senses and thru a thousand memories, is incomparably more powerful than that of any other craving.
Nutritious food in sufficient quantities is generally synonymous with good health. Improper food in insufficient quantities is generally synonymous with bad health.
The mental connotation of good and bad food, however, is far from being as important as the mental connotation of love or lack of love. There are besides the sexual factors, such tremendous egotistical factors in the love life (as will be shown in[Pg 52] Chapter VIII,) that love is the most powerful stimulus known and the lack of love or the loss of love the most terrible depressant for the human organism.
The Successful Lover has a good appetite, regular heart action, (hence a healthy complexion); he enjoys sleep undisturbed by nightmares, is capable of continued effort (good thyroid action), has firm muscles (regular adrenal section), is self-reliant, etc. In other words his organ............