I and my colleagues Art Aron and Lucy Brown and others, have put 37 people who are Cloze (1): JXUwMDM1JXUwMDBjJXUwMDA1JXUwMDA4JXUwMDE1 in love into a functional MRI brain scanner. 17 who were happily in love, 15 who had just been dumped, and we're just starting our third Cloze (2): JXUwMDNkJXUwMDFkJXUwMDA4JXUwMDE1JXUwMDE3JXUwMDFiJXUwMDA0JXUwMDA4JXUwMDBiJXUw MDFh : studying people who report that they're still in love after 10 to 25 years of marriage. So, this is the short story of that Cloze (3): JXUwMDJhJXUwMDE3JXUwMDE2JXUwMDE2JXUwMDA0JXUwMDEzJXUwMDExJXUwMDBi .

In the jungles of Guatemala, in Tikal, stands a temple. It was built by the grandest Sun King, of the grandest city-state, of the grandest Cloze (4): JXUwMDNiJXUwMDBhJXUwMDFmJXUwMDFmJXUwMDA1JXUwMDA1JXUwMDEzJXUwMDFiJXUwMDE1JXUw MDFkJXUwMDA2JXUwMDAx of the Americas, the Mayas. His name was Jasaw Chan K'awiil. He stood over six feet tall. He lived into his 80s, and he was buried beneath this Cloze (5): JXUwMDM1JXUwMDAyJXUwMDAxJXUwMDFiJXUwMDE4JXUwMDA4JXUwMDBiJXUwMDFh in 720 AD. And Mayan inscriptions proclaim that he was deeply in love with his Cloze (6): JXUwMDJmJXUwMDFlJXUwMDBmJXUwMDAz . So, he built a temple in her honor, facing his. And every spring and autumn, exactly at the equinox, the sun rises behind his temple, and perfectly bathes her temple with his shadow. And as the sun sets behind her temple in the afternoon, it perfectly bathes his temple with her Cloze (7): JXUwMDJiJXUwMDFiJXUwMDA5JXUwMDA1JXUwMDBiJXUwMDE4 . After 1,300 years, these two lovers still touch and kiss from their tomb.

Around the world, people love. They sing for love, they dance for love, they Cloze (8): JXUwMDNiJXUwMDBjJXUwMDAyJXUwMDFkJXUwMDFmJXUwMDFjJXUwMDE2 poems and stories about love. They tell myths and legends about love. They pine for love, they live for love,they kill for love, and they die for love. As Walt Whitman once said, he said, "Oh, I would stake all for you."  Cloze (9): JXUwMDE5JXUwMDJmJXUwMDFhJXUwMDFjJXUwMDFhJXUwMDFkJXUwMDFmJXUwMDFmJXUwMDAzJXUw MDAzJXUwMDA4JXUwMDBlJXUwMDFhJXUwMDA3JXUwMDA3 have found evidence of romantic love in 170 societies. They've never found a society that did not have it.

But love isn't always a happy Cloze (10): JXUwMDNkJXUwMDFkJXUwMDA4JXUwMDE1JXUwMDE3JXUwMDFiJXUwMDBjJXUwMDBiJXUwMDBkJXUw MDA2 . In one study of college students, they asked a lot of questions about love, but the two that stood out to me the most were, "Have you ever been Cloze (11): JXUwMDJhJXUwMDE3JXUwMDBmJXUwMDBmJXUwMDA2JXUwMDE3JXUwMDExJXUwMDAx by somebody who you really loved?" And the second question was, "Have you ever dumped somebody who really loved you?" And almost 95 percent of both men and women said yes to both.  Cloze (12): JXUwMDE5JXUwMDJkJXUwMDAxJXUwMDAyJXUwMDFjJXUwMDA3 nobody gets out of love alive.

So, before I start telling you about the brain, I want to read for you what I think is the most powerful love Cloze (13): JXUwMDI4JXUwMDFmJXUwMDBhJXUwMDA4 on Earth. There's other love poems that are, of course, just as good, but I don't think this one can be Cloze (14): JXUwMDJiJXUwMDA2JXUwMDA3JXUwMDAyJXUwMDExJXUwMDEyJXUwMDAwJXUwMDE2JXUwMDAx . It was told by an anonymous Kwakiutl Indian of southern Alaska to a missionary in 1896, and here it is. I've never had the opportunity to say it before. "Fire runs through my body with the Cloze (15): JXUwMDI4JXUwMDExJXUwMDA4JXUwMDA3 of loving you. Pain runs through my body with the fires of my love for you.Pain like a boil about to Cloze (16): JXUwMDNhJXUwMDE3JXUwMDA3JXUwMDAxJXUwMDA3 with my love for you, consumed by fire with my love for you. I remember what you said to me. I am Cloze (17): JXUwMDJjJXUwMDFjJXUwMDAxJXUwMDA3JXUwMDA1JXUwMDAyJXUwMDA3JXUwMDA5 of your love for me. I am torn by your love for me. Pain and more pain -- where are you going with my love? I am told you will go from here. I am told you will leave me here. My body is Cloze (18): JXUwMDM2JXUwMDFiJXUwMDE4JXUwMDBm with grief. Remember what I said, my love. Goodbye, my love, goodbye." Emily Dickinson once wrote, "Parting is all we need to know of hell." How many people have suffered in all the millions of years of Cloze (19): JXUwMDMwJXUwMDFkJXUwMDE4JXUwMDBjJXUwMDBm evolution? How many people around the world are dancing with elation at this very minute? Romantic love is one of the most powerful Cloze (20): JXUwMDJiJXUwMDE2JXUwMDBiJXUwMDFkJXUwMDEyJXUwMDE1JXUwMDFkJXUwMDA2JXUwMDAxJXUw MDFk on Earth.