February 2, 2013

"Perhaps we could design 'love drugs,' pharmaceutical cocktails that could boost affection between partners..."

"... whisking them back to the exquisite set of pleasures that colored their first years together. The ability to do this kind of fine-tuned emotional engineering is beyond the power of current science, but there is a growing field of research devoted to it. Some have even suggested developing 'anti-love drugs' that could dissolve abusive relationships, or reduce someone's attachment to a charismatic cult leader. Others just want a pill to ease the pain of a wrenching breakup."

What's to prevent your abusive-relationship person from committing further abuse by slipping the drug to his/her victim Oberon-style?
What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true-love take,
Love and languish for his sake:
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
Wake when some vile thing is near.
IN THE COMMENTS: furious_a said:
Artificially aroused men pursuing artificially enhanced women under the influence of artificially induced emotions.

Who says "Romance is dead"?
Kevin said:
I wonder if they watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and are going forward in spite of, or are going forward because of.

53 comments:

bagoh20 said...

So it gives you amnesia?

traditionalguy said...

The medicine men are trying to catch up and get rich. Will their drug dealer's ads advise getting ER treatment if still in love after more than 4 hours?

The horse tranquilizer drug quaaludes is already in use for this.

Actually this market niche was filled earlier by Christian's experience of having all of the love of God poured out into their hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Anonymous said...

Those Who Listen in the Walls are very concerned about such pharmaceutical advancements.

Kevin said...

Am I going to be in love today? Just give me a percentage.

Anonymous said...

Those Who Listen in the Walls know when you know they are there. The drugs that make you forget they are there are OK; other drugs, not so much.

Anonymous said...

When it is very quiet you can hear Those Who Listen in the Walls. It is sometimes hard to make out the words.

edutcher said...

Why does the phrase, "good intentions", keep running through my head?

Kevin said...

I wonder if they watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and are going forward in spite of, or are going forward because of.

Bob Ellison said...

Reminds me of the movie Brain Candy.

Anonymous said...

The frequencies employed by Those Who Listen in the Walls do not get picked up by recording devices. You play back the tape and people say "See? There's nothing there."

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter if you play the tape forward or backward: this is not the Beatles.

Anonymous said...

Those Who Listen in the Walls know you want others to hear them, just to prove they are there.

Anonymous said...

Contrary to popular belief, tin-foil does not protect one from Those Who Listen in the Walls, whether in hat form or not.

Anonymous said...

It can be maddening: you can hear Those Who Listen in the Walls, while a person standing right beside you is oblivious.

Anonymous said...

What Those Who Listen in the Walls say can often sound nonsensical, but if you concentrate on it long enough the Message becomes clearer.

Sometimes it takes hours of concentration; sometimes, days.

Anonymous said...

A week can go by, and then: A-ha!

Message received.

Darrell said...

True MDMA "ectasy" (methylamphetamine) already has been shown to act as you describe. Before it hit the illegal scene, researchers reported almost amazing results with married couples were were at each others' throats. A few minutes after taking it, they were acting like newlyweds, apologizing for their bad behavior and practically having sex on the spot. Unfortunately the stigma of illegal club use put a halt to most of this casual non-critical research. If you took ectasy and didn't see those effects please note that most confiscated club ectasy seems to be chemicals other than MDMA primarily.

Of course there are side-effects and a lot more research is needed. But you have to do the research before anything came come of this.

DADvocate said...

Already been done. Love Potion #9.

Robert Cook said...

Yes...they're describing Ecstasy.

Also, Brain Candy rocked!

Anonymous said...

It is not as if Those Who Listen in the Walls are telling you to do things; it is more like a suggestion.

Often the suggestions seem quite reasonable.

Anonymous said...

Those Who Listen in the Walls might suggest you possess superpowers of which you were previously unaware.

It would be silly not to use them.

kentuckyliz said...

Darrell is right. It was also used with dying people and their families to get them to feel and express their love openly.

I have chemo brain and it's like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. I am sure it's likely that bad and traumatic things have happened to me, but I can't remember them.

I am unpartnered, but if I were partnered, imagine how that translates to wiping the slate clean, twenty years into a marriage. That could be a mercy.

kentuckyliz said...

Pharmaceutical cocktails to boost the love?

Why not regular cocktails?

I feel quite loving after martinis, Manhattans, and G&T's.

Anonymous said...

For instance, Those Who Listen in the Walls may suggest that you can hear what people are thinking. Then: why yes, you can.

Anonymous said...

People will try to deny it.

"That's not what I was thinking," they may say.

Those Who Listen in the Walls can give you the Will to know otherwise.

Unknown said...

"Remember what the dormouse said."

Anonymous said...

When they deny it you can tell they know better because their Soul turns Orange.

Those Who Listen in the Walls give you the power to see this.

Anonymous said...

It can be sad to see what is in people's Souls that they deny. It makes them lash out at others in a passive-aggressive way. Such behavior is usually a sign. When you call them on it they only become more unreasonable.

Anonymous said...

Other times the Power may be to live five seconds in the Future.

Anonymous said...

You can hear what they will say moments before they say it. It can be disconcerting.

Anonymous said...

Those Who Listen in the Walls know that five seconds can be the difference between now and right now.

Darrell said...

Now I know why VHS won out over Beta(max).

Bender said...

If it is involuntary, if it the result of drug-induced compulsion, then it isn't love.

Anonymous said...

When the Power fades and you are back in the present it can be both a relief and a letdown.

You could try to explain the sensation in detail but people won't believe it anyway: you can hear them think this, even if they do not say it.

Their Souls are Green.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Now I know why VHS won out over Beta(max)."

I knew you were going to say this five seconds ago.

Carol said...

pharma ha already fucked the mental health field so why not.

Anonymous said...

It is neither a blessing nor a curse: it is just the Way Things Are.

Those Who Listen in the Walls are rational, even if the Message takes time to make sense.

When you are five seconds into the future the Understanding comes quicker. By about five seconds.

Darrell said...

If it is involuntary, if it the result of drug-induced compulsion, then it isn't love.

It didn't necessarily work that way with strangers. The married couples in therapy instantly did what therapists had been asking them to do for six months--they recalled all the good times (preferentially, apparently)--and all the reasons they fell in love with that person to begin with--e.g. seeing them at dawn's light, looking like the most beautiful women they had ever seen. There was thought and memory involved--not just some chemical reaction.

Anonymous said...

You can hear people arguing inside their heads, desperately hoping it doesn't show. Five seconds later, they say what they know they shouldn't have said.

Anonymous said...

You could try to warn them -- "what you are about to think, hold back" -- but they won't believe you, they never believe you.

It is hard to set someone straight in less than five seconds, even if they Believe.

furious_a said...

Artificially aroused men pursuing artificially enhanced women under the influence of artificially induced emotions.

Who says "Romance is dead"?

Darrell said...

And it lasted beyond the monitored session. It actually saved some marriages that had reached the "throwing" and name calling (rather than actual names) phases.

Anonymous said...

In this state Memories come in five-second intervals. If you count "One-Mississippi, Two-Mississippi" it matches up perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Artificially aroused men pursuing artificially enhanced women under the influence of artificially induced emotions."

Genius.

Anonymous said...

I will repeat that line in my head in five-second intervals and laugh each time.

Ann Althouse said...

Yo, betamax, you're being paged in the next post!

Anonymous said...

Because "the walls have ears".

Mark said...

They are using MDMA for some vets with PTSD, who are all self-funding this alternate treatment as the personal breakthroughs are quite evident.

The illegal nature of these drugs is understandable, yet a shame. Boomers sort of crapped in their own bed, old policies and politicals (hello, Joe Biden) have let recreation set research back.

Thankfully, the times they have a changed.

Robert Cook said...

"Who says 'Romance is dead'"?

"Romance" is just a chemical reaction of the brain and body, even without the introduction of pharmaceuticals.

Darrell said...

True enough. We are just electro-chemical machines who will on day be manipulated in every way conceivable.

Howard said...

FYI, it's called Tequila

furious_a said...

Thank you, thankyouverymuch.

kentuckyliz said...

As a followup to my nonpharmaceutical cocktail comment:

A friend was pregnant for the first (and only) time, and she was at her first prenatal visit at the OBGYN.

He asked, do you drink?

She replied, how do you think I got this way?!

LOL