Love and Personality

Love: Apparently, conjugation (sexual dualism) has evolved mainly as a means of accelerating and intensifying the double effect (multiplication and diversification) obtained beforehand by asexual reproduction. Biologically, we can say that for every individual there have been several steps that led up to, and included, conception. Between central steps, i.e. between egg development in the mother and the egg's fertilisation by an acceptable sperm, there has been the mutual selection of the father and the mother. The conscious result of the mother's DNA (her personality) attracts the conscious result of the father's DNA (his personality), and vice-versa, in the process called 'love', or the selection of an appropriate mate. Ideally, love has occurred when each can say to the other:

"It is not so much the way you look, or what you are, although these are important, but rather the way that I feel, or how you make me feel, when I am with you."

Love is important for the rearing of children because not only do you love those parts of the child that derived from yourself, but also those parts that derived from your loved one.

The question now arises: "How do we sense love?" "Is it just simply by a combination of our five senses, namely those of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, or is something else involved as well, such as intuition?" But we won't try to answer these questions now, but a way forward may come from the application of Astrology, particularly that part of it called "Synastry". The word comes from the Greek: 'syn' standing for 'mutual bringing together' and 'astron' meaning 'star'. To return to basics just once more, we can say that:

The fundamental biochemical processes that underpin all animal senses predate the emergence of multicellular life. In the search for the origin of the senses, we don't need to go very far because the single, eukaryotic-celled creature, a paramecium, developed the sense of touch. It has no brain, but as soon as it bumps into an obstacle, it changes direction. The biochemical mechanism underlying this touch response is an 'action-potential'. It is ancient, as well as electrical. An 'action-potential' is a short-lasting, electrical pulse that produces a simple response from within the nervous system. The ability of an organism to sense its environment is based on the transformation of an external stimulus – be it a chemical, light, sound, or touch, into a change in a cell membrane potential, which is an 'action-potential'. The advantages are the speed of transmission, and the controlled nature of the electrical pulse. 'Action-potentials' can travel at over 100 metres per second (through ion channels) and the shape plus intensity of the pulse does not alter over long distances. Every sensation we have, is relayed to our brains by 'action-potentials'. This is 'Simply Now'.

Although the mechanism by which information is transmitted to the brain from the various senses, is the same for all of them, different parts of the brain deal specifically with the information from each sense. For example, the visual cortex (at the back of the brain!) deals with the reception and interpretation of vision. Similarly, the auditory cortex (part of the temporal lobes) deals with sound data; the olfactory cortex (situated at the front of the cerebrum) deals with signals from the nostrils, and the sensations of touch have to do with the somatosensory cortex (located in the parietal lobes). These regions of the senses are called primary because they are concerned with the input to, and the output from, the brain. Near to these primary regions lie the secondary ones, which deal with more abstract levels. The data from the various senses is processed at these associated secondary levels. The remaining regions of the cerebral cortex are called tertiary, and the most abstract and sophisticated activity of the brain is carried out here. The information from the different senses is analysed and combined; memories are laid down, pictures of the outside World are constructed, general plans are conceived, evaluated and speech is understood, or formulated. The hippocampus participates strongly in laying down long-term (permanent) memories. The hypothalamus is the seat of emotion – pleasure, rage, fear, despair and hunger, for example. The thalamus itself, is a processing centre and relay station, whereas the reticular formation is responsible for the general state of alertness, or awareness, involved in the brain, as a whole. However, the reticular formation is an ancient part of the brain, but the more complicated activities of the cerebral cortex would give that region the strongest claim for being capable of harbouring consciousness.

With the foregoing in 'mind', let us return to the phenomenon of 'love'. Earlier, we said that the conscious result of the mother's DNA (i.e. her overall personality) attracted the conscious result of the father's DNA (i.e. his overall personality), and vice-versa, in the process called 'love'. Clearly, we have here two people sensing each other. The data from this is transferred to each of their brains, in time-honoured fashion by action-potentials, where it becomes analysed finally in the tertiary regions of the cerebral cortex. At first thought, it would seem that no additional, specific area is required to handle this sort of information. Yet sensing each other's personality, initially, can take place very quickly, followed by a slower confirmation of the initial, favourable impression, and so on. Earlier, we used the word 'personality', but we could just about have used the word 'horoscope' instead. Could we possibly take a step further and suggest that the sensing of 'personality'/'horoscope' is essentially the same as sensing the state of each other's planets at their moments of epoch and birth? After all, all of us are members of the solar system, even though we are, naturally, Earthlings first. And we can test the validity of this proposal to see whether there is agreement between the proposed results of love, and the actual ones, between sets of two specific people, i.e. from their 'synastry' exercises.

Usually, the greatest value of 'synastry' consists of its ability to assess the compatibility of partners in marriage. Couples might want to know, before marriage, whether they are suited to each other. Many young people are anxious to have confirmation of their feelings before taking an irrevocable step. Marriage partners may need...