Where do emotions come from?

Where do emotions come from? Science says emotions come from the brain but mythology states that love comes from the heart. When you feel joy does it feel like something you thought into existence or is it more like a reaction to stimulus, something a little out of your control?

When you argue with someone, do you really want to get angry? Does anyone want to get angry? So why do we get angry? How can something we don’t want in our mind or our spirit/heart be coming from us? We may want to disagree with someone; we may even want to be right. But why did we get angry when we did not want to? When we come to a disagreement we have two choices to love by peaceful debate and if we still disagree simply let that be ok, or we can argue. When we argue God sends us the spirit of Anger so that we can see where arguments lead. We did not want to get angry but we were arguing over trivial matters that don’t pertain to loving one another.

We all know arguments solve nothing but we still choose to have them. As long as we choose to have them God will continue to send the spirit of anger our way so that we may experience all the displeasure that comes with the path of argument. To argue about that which is not against love is self-righteousness. Are any self righteous? Then why do any of us argue? If we stopped arguing, would we not stop getting angry, if we stopped allowing anger to consume us would we not stop killing each other?

Do you get the purpose of emotions yet? You were born to become an eternal being, if love is in you than the eternal light is in you. Christ claimed he was the light, meaning he the firstborn over all creation is love. He is claiming that love was the first thing God created and that he was here in body to teach us how to love.

This is what he was saying about emotions, judgment, and hell. Emotions are judgment. We do what we know we should not do and we receive as our punishment negative rewards. Paul says we can get so addicted to our sin that the only way out is to believe that God loves you and has provided you a path. Maybe all don’t fall this far from God, but Paul sure did, he was condoning the killing of people who were loving him. Why else would he be chosen, the only crime worse than this was killing the son of God himself on the Cross. This is why Paul said he considered himself the least of all of God’s people.

Look this may not work for everyone who is depressed but the bible says this. Knowing the right you are supposed to do and not doing it is also sin. Sitting around waiting for the world to change when you know you might be able to make a change in just one person’s life, this is sin, and this is indifference. What reward do you expect to receive for indifference?

You can’t wait around and expect love to come to you. Instead go out and be love and love will be there. Knock and the door will be opened. Jesus says when 2 come together in his name there he will be. If two people come together in love they will be in love. He claimed he was love, so his claim is valid even if he is not love. Because whenever two people come together in any of the names of love, they will find love.

To my Muslim brothers, we know we are brothers because we know there is only one God, let us debate religion another day. I don’t know if Mohammad was a profit or not, nor do I know if the Koran is from God but I do know that I agree with everyone of the 99 names given to Allah and Christ agrees. He simply said God is love and I believe if Mohammad was a profit this would have been his message as well. I know many Muslims find the path to love through the Koran so I will leave it up for you to decide.

www.islamicity.com...

If I can’t convince you to believe that Christ is who he claimed to be we can agree to disagree. But whenever two people come together in any of the names of love they surely do find love. You get to choose the emotion you receive based on the actions you take. Choose to love and you have chosen to receive love. The emotions are not yours they belong to God and you earn each one you receive.


Choose love and avoid judgment. Love keeps no records of wrongdoing. The path is not always going to be perfect but the pursuit can never stop. Paul said it was like running a marathon, only this marathon will last your entire life. He also said it was like pure joy.


In Hebrews it says the man who learns the truth about love and falls away is worse than he was before he knew. Choose your emotions because now you know the truth.

Good read

Many believe in the organic nature of life arising out of complex compounds and biologically regulated through chemical signaling and that our very consciousness manifested through the complexity that is quantum theory. Essentially, our emotions are controlled via stimuli, cognition, and then physiology. The stimuli information is referenced to predisposition and already established patterns, then translated into chemicals, then we know it and act.

In psychology, philosophy, and their many subsets, emotion is the generic term for subjective, conscious experience that is characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states. Emotion is often associated and considered reciprocally influential with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation,[citation needed] as well as influenced by hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin, oxytocin and cortisol. Emotion is often the driving force behind motivation, positive or negative.[1] In the book "Psychology", Schacter defines emotion as a "positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity."

en.wikipedia.org...

The cognitive theory, I think best represents emotion:

Lazarus' theory is very influential; emotion is a disturbance that occurs in the following order:


Cognitive appraisal—The individual assesses the event cognitively, which cues the emotion.

Physiological changes—The cognitive reaction starts biological changes such as increased heart rate or pituitary adrenal response.

Action—The individual feels the emotion and chooses how to react.

Love is just one of those reactions to stimuli that evolved along with our consciousness, in my opinion. It's part of being a 'social animal' ya know. We just have a knack at documenting things, going haywire with the abstract, and altruism. We can thank our lobes for that.

Jesus, right... Christ, religion... say what you will, but even biblical scholars recognize inconsistencies between 'believers' and how the text originated. This might be the wrong OP to respond to with this type of response, but you asked 'where do emotions come from?", so I figured I might lead some down the right direction.

Well, I wish I didn't have any.

Poker messes that up though.

The pineal gland.

"This is a relatively unknown endocrine gland placed between the two cerebral hemispheres. It is tucked right in the middle of the cranium. For those who work with chakras, it is directly connected to the crown chakra, the seventh chakra, purple chakra. This gland is in the conduit connecting the seventh chakra to the first. It is directly connected to the day’s solar cycle. It secretes serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin gives life to the body; it gives it dynamics and vibrancy. This hormone is responsible for the yanging process of the person (it reinforces the person’s structure). It makes the person energetic. It is between two and four in the morning, during sleep, that secretion of serotonin by the pineal gland stops and gives way to the secretion of melatonin. Melatonin is good for the immune system, increases the quality of sleep, and has a positive effect on enthusiasm, good disposition, and good humour. This moment in our sleep is very important because it is a very yin, very calm, and very Zen time of regeneration of the person."

www.luismartinssimoes.com...

Glands dump bio weapons into our blood stream like adrenalin or endorphins. These aren't even emotions. We call our reaction to these "heightened states" of awareness "emotions". So we "feel joy" but all we really feel is good. Thats not even a proper description.

Anger doesn't start as anger. It begins as resentment. A little tiny bit of intolerance that can build over time if we don't deal with it sooner. If we indulge this growing resentment in our mind by turning it over and dwelling upon it, it will grow to anger, then rage, maybe action.

The moment we cut loose on the object of our anger is the moment the body responds by dumping adrenalin into the bloodstream and then we (think) we feel angry. We say we are overemotional, or "sensitive". We may become "out of control".

We may be a person who has "anger issues". Because we don't exercise control. Instead of building anger, people need to practice defusing it. Getting control over emotional "impulses" before they become out of control.

reply to post by SpearMint


You think this about religion but it is not. It is about loving one another.

The website you linked to explains evolution. I explained how to evolve. We agree I am simply suggesting it is time to evolve. Love is the greatest of emotions; anything done against love is not worth doing.
It is time to evolve.

Jesus suggested it 2000 years ago, Lennon about 50 years ago. And I suggest it today.



Lennon said imagine there is no heaven, no hell, nothing to divide us, only love.

Romans 10:5-75 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”(that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”[c(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Paul says don’t try to guess who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. He says condemning a man to hell is saying that love cannot save everyone. And that deciding who will go to heaven is assuming that anyone is worthy. Rather than worry about heaven and hell simply obey the command to love. If you believe in love with all your heart and you pursue it than you have done as Christ said. That is all you need to worry about, leave the rest to God. Love will find a way, God will not keep anything hidden from one who chooses to obey love.

Evolve with me and obey love. It doesn’t matter why just do it.

reply to post by sacgamer25


I didn't mention religion. My link doesn't explain evolution, it explains the evolutionary role of emotions and how they developed.

reply to post by retirednature


So your stimulus for anger is still arguments. We will likely never agree on all things but we do control the emotions that we feel. It is possible for our emotions to be influenced by others but we still have the ability to choose.

You say chemical reaction to argument is anger. OK I say that chemical reaction was a gift from God. And I lay the foundation to choose love so that you may no longer experience those negative chemical reactions.

You do not need to believe anything I say. The truth is the truth. If you pursue love, love is the chemical reaction that you will receive. If you refuse to believe in God believe in the chemical reaction. I don't really care; just pursue love so that we may all find love.

The philosophy to love is always the truth. Anything less is not worth pursuit.

reply to post by SpearMint


Why is your answer better than mine? No one can know for certain how or why emotions developed. Especially since all of them but love would seem to have no value but to destroy.

reply to post by sacgamer25

You think this about religion but it is not. It is about loving one another.

Wow, I'm sorry but your thought process here is all over the place. This thread would have been better off if it just stuck with debating where emotions come from (your original question). Some would say emotions come from a single consciousness that we're all connected to. Some would say a god gave us emotions (guilt and joy) so that we would feel the difference between right and wrong.

I say, emotions comes from the brain. Our emotions are not only based on thought, but the food we eat can affect our emotions. Not getting enough sleep can make us cranky and weaken our judgements. Alcohol and drugs heighten or dull our emotions. Yep, I choose the brain.

reply to post by jiggerj


You call it your brain, I would say your brain is a gift from God. But who cares anymore. Can we just acknowledge that it is best to love one another? And if we can acknowledge it why don’t we just do it. Really this is not complicated. If you choose love you will find it. If you want it to be natural or supernatural who cares. No matter what you believe if you pursue love you will find love.

Emotions arise as a reaction this is true, but a reaction to what? To life?

No. Emotions are a reaction from the beliefs that one has about any particular life experience.


For example, if a person's mind is focused on "giving" and "helping others" , and then that person loses money that person may be HAPPY that now another can find it and use it to their advantage. One could even call it "God's will" that allow this seemingly unfortunate event to be a blessing to another...

BUT, if a person's mind is focused on "fear of being poor" or "money rules the world and I need a lot of it"... then losing money can easily lead to anger or sadness...

In the same way, unconditional love can only come from UNDERSTANDING. If you do not understand that all evil comes from IGNORANCE then you will just see it as an "evil" action and want the person to suffer (most likely).

If we understand that harm to others is actually SELF-HARM since we are all ONE SPECIES, then we can see how this person is IGNORANT and need to learn. We can see that person as a spoiled child that does not like to play fair with others... we do not condemn the child, we understand it as part of a GROWING/LEARNING process and in the same way we can have compassion for those who only care about themselves...

So, to sum up everything I said...


Emotions are a reaction to what events in life BUT not the actual event but the BELIEFS ABOUT THEM...


Negative emotion can be used as a SIGNAL to change one's VIEWS for more happiness/acceptance....

Their are only two emotions, Fear & Love.
All other emotions are stemmed from these two base emotions.

Various spiritual teachings say that there are only two fundamental emotions: love and fear. For the body, this is true. All mammals, including humans, have two opposing hormonal responses to stimuli. Threatening stimuli cause an increase of stress hormones—adrenaline and cortisol. Soothing or reassuring stimuli cause an increase in oxytocin.

A sudden threat triggers the fight-or-flight response associated with adrenaline. Adrenaline steps up heart rate, increases respiration, activates muscles, and promotes hyper-alertness. Longer-term stress (from a few minutes to days and weeks) increases a different stress hormone: cortisol. Cortisol, too, makes us hyper-vigilant, but its evolutionary functions are quite different than the temporary jolt of adrenaline designed to propel us out of danger. The stress encountered by mammals—and our hunter-gatherer ancestors—was chiefly physical, not emotional. The most common physical stressors were probably starvation, long migrations, and critical injury. To cope with such emergencies, cortisol begins to break down non-essential organs and tissues to maintain blood sugar and feed vital organs. When cortisol stays at high levels, it automatically digests bones, muscles and joints to obtain these key nutrients. The result is elevated blood fats and sugar, which are related to many disorders. Another side effect is hunger; we reach for high-calorie foods. Today our biggest long-term stressors are emotional and mental, not physical. In effect, we are a “new” scientific experiment. We face threats in the form of potential job loss, the pressure of commuting in heavy traffic, a barrage of fear-producing media, relationship disharmony in a marriage, etc. Even though these are not physical threats, our body has only one, automatic response: more cortisol. Cortisol is very hard on the body, so all these threats indirectly become physical threats. Fortunately, we have a built-in mechanism for countering stress, which forms the basis of our alternative response to stimuli. It entails another hormone, called oxytocin. Apart from its functions of inducing emotional bonding, labor, and lactation, oxytocin counters the effects of cortisol. This anti-stress effect of oxytocin is a recent discovery, and very exciting, because it points the way to better health by entirely natural means.

Sauce

What is not an expression of Love is an expression of Fear. Whichever core emotion we express-- whether it be love or fear-- we put into motion. In other words, if it is an aspect of fear that we feel then it is that energy which is moving forward and bringing us more of it to experience. Like does attract like. Fear breeds more fear. Love creates more love and draws more loving experiences into your life in the same way that being in a state of fear attracts more fearful or negative experiences to you.

Sauce

Live from the heart. All there is is love

Imagine your life as a song. Your the instrument and everything around you is the artist. You become sad because the artist makes you sad. You are happy because the artist makes you happy.

The artist can make the song and instrument sound however they like. So all in all your being played like a piano.

Emotions come from the spirit.

reply to post by arpgme

Emotions arise as a reaction this is true, but a reaction to what? To life?

Yes. Directly what you see, hear and feel. If you witness a car crash for instance, that might prompt an "oh no" response in you mind, that then signals an adrenaline dump into your blood. That fear response you had began with your eyes.

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by arpgme

 

Emotions arise as a reaction this is true, but a reaction to what? To life?

Yes. Directly what you see, hear and feel. If you witness a car crash for instance, that might prompt an "oh no" response in you mind, that then signals an adrenaline dump into your blood. That fear response you had began with your eyes.

There are two types of emotional response, internally driven where the response is a reaction to something happening to you. The second is Empathy, where something that does not directly impact you still influences your emotional state of mind.

These could be traumatic things which could cause profound changes in emotional state, or very simple. Such as seeing an interracial couple hold hands. While you may not agree with the couples choice, instead of being sympathetic to their situation you condemn them thus bringing condemnation on yourself. The condemnation is the negative emotion you feel when you pass judgment on others. The bible is true when you condemn others you do also emotionally condemn yourself.

When we experience these types of external experiences we make a choice to simply love and react according to the laws of love. Or we can choose judgment based on the situation. Only the one that obeys love will truly find the loving connection between themselves and the one they have Empathy for.

Emotions are simply part of (mammalian) life's survival mechanism.

Love and empathy help us (and one another) to survive and gives life a sense of purpose.
Fear and depression let us know that we are in less than optimal living conditions.

Without the feel-good rewards of biochemicals like dopamine and oxytocin, life would seem completely pointless.

This is why sentiments like "Life Is Good" or "Life's a B***ch" are strictly in the eye of the beholder.

Originally posted by sacgamer25
reply to post by jiggerj

 

You call it your brain, I would say your brain is a gift from God. But who cares anymore. Can we just acknowledge that it is best to love one another? And if we can acknowledge it why don’t we just do it. Really this is not complicated. If you choose love you will find it. If you want it to be natural or supernatural who cares. No matter what you believe if you pursue love you will find love.

Sure! But, as humans we cannot maintain love. Boredom kills love. Shame kills love. Guilt, frustration, greed, jealousy, lust... they're all love killers. If you have two sons near the same age, and one keeps winning against the other (in races, wrestling, in smarts...) the loser will most likely grow up angry, while the other might grow up competitive, aggressive... Point being, we cannot maintain love - it's just not possible.

So, even if it were possible for this generation to allow the world to be painted in glorious shades of love, it would not carry over to the next generation - it would have to be learned all over again, and again, and again.

reply to post by intrptr

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by arpgme

 

Emotions arise as a reaction this is true, but a reaction to what? To life?

Yes. Directly what you see, hear and feel. If you witness a car crash for instance, that might prompt an "oh no" response in you mind, that then signals an adrenaline dump into your blood. That fear response you had began with your eyes.

This is not true. The "oh no" comes from BELIEFS about the cars, the people who may be in the cars, and the actual crash. Without BELIEFS about these things there wouldn't be an instant reaction of "oh no" - so it did not start from the eyes.

If you don't believe me think about this...

It could be that the car crash was staged and there aren't any real people in there but are test dummies. I bet to most people this why make them think "oooh" .... and this surprise comes from the BELIEF that car crashes are unfortunate because people are in there and can get hurt and being hurt is bad...

So, the source is the BELIEF.