Should We Believe in Love at First Sight?

4.08.2011 | By: I. M.

Let's make this clear once and for all: Is love at first sight only a myth or a fact of life?

Love at first sight always happens unexpectedly. (PhotoXpress)

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Love at first sight is the kind of love that happens unexpectedly to people, in one single moment, and that can have a greater impact on a person’s life than the love that develops over a longer period of time. People who have experienced it see it as something that cannot be logically explained.

Romantics vs. skeptics

Those who don't believe in love at first sight could easily be called skeptics or simply careful people, who only commit to a relationship when they know it is safe. However, hopeless romantics do believe in love at first sight. It isn't true that love at first sight is about recklessly falling in love with every passing individual we visually like at first glance. It is about a certain person really appealing to us with his or her appearance and charisma, and it is definitely also about a kind of sexual charge.

How do our bodies respond to it?

Our senses respond to the "fateful moment" by literally feeling the person who turns our world upside down. They isolate this person from everything else that goes on around us. Our heart starts beating faster, we feel the adrenalin or butterflies in our stomach, and our pupils dilate. All this can be accompanied by blushing and sweaty palms.

What did Dr. Freud have to say?

The father of psychoanalysis warned us about the curious effects of being in love. To be precise, he compared the feeling of being in love to being hypnotized. He claimed that a person in love was capable of doing anything. This person becomes humble, subservient, obedient and uncritical when it comes to the person he or she loves. He or she sees only perfection in the other human being. The same condition can be observed in a person under hypnosis, as a hypnotist can achieve the same results – humility, obedience and subservience when it comes to the acts the hypnotist wants performed.

Surprise surprise! Love at first sight can be truly disappointing

Love at first sight feels marvelous, but can also greatly disappoint. Once the butterflies are gone, we move back to reality. This is what happened to two people from New York, when the internet website designer beheld the woman of his dreams on the subway. Because she got lost in the crowd, he designed a website with the purpose of finding her. Many New Yorkers helped him with this task. The search lasted for two days and the romance became public. Unfortunately, it didn't work out - after two months, they found out that they weren't meant for each other.

So, love at first sight does happen. We cannot pretend it doesn't because we are capable of experiencing it. However, it's always a question of how open we are to it as individuals.