"I think, therefore I am."
With these words, Descartes summed up the nature of human existence. Whatever man is not, he is perhaps the only animal capable of abstract (and more rarely, rational) thought. Philosophers spent centuries trying to decipher the mysteries of the mind, before the era of scientific enlightenment pointed them in the right direction. The establishment of modern medicine lead to the discovery that what we consider to be the 'mind' or the innate 'soul', is nothing but the by-product of our neural processes.
All you are is a thought, and your thoughts are nothing but a spark in the elaborate circuitry of your nervous system. These sparks, though not always, are at the mercy of the chemicals that bathe your brain. Everything you think, everything you feel. All of it can be boiled down to a set of neurons firing off in a set pattern. Reduced to chemicals released by the right gland at the right time. All your happiness and gloom, your misery and fortune, everything is born out of the cauldron of your neuro-endocrine system.
In the past, emotions might have played a role in promoting group bonding and establishing social structure. What was once an essential tool for survival is now nothing more than a fossil, an evolutionary phantom limb that won't stop itching. Despite societal and cultural norms exaggerating the importance of these impractical remnants, one does realise (in due time, of course) that most emotions are ephemeral.
No matter how much you loved your teenage sweetheart, you barely remember them once some time passes by. As the euphoria wears off, you realise that your feelings have atrophied and all that remains is the skeleton you lock away in the closet. Emotions are fleeting, and these fickle phantoms need to be exorcised (Mr Spock agrees).
In an attempt to unveil the trickery behind these pesky pests that inevitably inhabit our skulls, I am going to write a series of blog posts revealing the biological processes that dictate our emotions. The intention is not to belittle what we feel, but rather produce a sense of comfort.
The first emotion, of which we are all rather fond of, is the one I'll be tackling first in my next post. Love and attachment. In the meanwhile, I am open to suggestions and input regarding the same.
P.S. This and the following posts do not seek to undermine what you may or may not feel. It is all a part and parcel of being human.
