Does Love at First Sight Exist?

Let's say you get lucky tomorrow and spot a Potential Love Partner. He or she is sitting on the steps reading a book. Or standing in a museum studying a painting. Or getting on the bus. Or waiting in line at the bank cash machine. You sneak a second peek. Something about the stranger revs up your internal PEA factory, and a little dollop goes squirting through your veins. Maybe it's her looks, the way he moves, something she's wearing. Her aura? Is this love at first sight? Does love at first sight even exist? Well, that's a semantics question. Instant desire, or lust at first sight, definitely exists. However, the scientific world pretty well agrees that love at first sight is merely Monday-morning quarterbacking. A successful love affair, perhaps one leading to marriage, is retrospectively declared to be true love; whereas if one is rebuffed, it is classified . . . as infatuation.'' Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality 10 Semantics aside, one fact remains. Any small stimulus can kick-start love. Your first moves when you spot a Potential Love Partner are crucial. If, from that powerful stimulus, love grows, you have every right to call it love at first sight. Nobody will argue with you. Love at first sight has survived because it is an integral part of the many popular beliefs about romantic love. Romantic love is an important cultural value to Americans. 11 In the same way that a voodoo curse causes death only in persons who believe in its power to kill them, love at first sight truly exists for those who believe in it.