The Heart Orgasm

Thoughtsome and Jetsam: The search for science regarding matters of the heart

Ok, I never want to come across this drippy but really wanted to get my thoughts on this out there. I really do feel there could be some scientific merit here.

Stick with me.

This one might lose me some subs and remove me from the gene-pool but I don’t care. You’ll all be wanting me back when I win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine!

Basically, I like the idea of me getting this idea down.

I hate the idea of anyone judging my character wrongly.

Anyway.

I don’t really care.

I want to write about love from a scientific / physiological / biological point of view, focussing specifically on its effect on the heart.

I have had a few partners where my feelings did extend to love, where I would literally have given a kidney for them. Run across the city in the rain to them at the slightest bit of bad news they would have.

But my first love was different. I was absolutely goofy for this woman. There was no amount of senses that I could have to absorb her with that was enough. The normal 5 were not enough, but they had to do.

It was kind of maddening.

Alas, I could not hold onto her at that time in my life and I sorely regret that. But the regret is not why I write this.

I had endless amount of frustration trying to convey to her what it was that she made me feel. There were lots of things, but the main thing I would try to explain to her was the way my heart felt. And I don't mean that in a soppy "awwwww" kind of way (though it will always come across like that), I mean it in a pure physical way.

"It feels as though I'm constantly about to have a heart attack" I would say to her, as her face took on a very worried and scared look. She didn't know what to make of it, and neither did I. But now I know what it is.

She was giving my heart an orgasm.

I now believe that is literally what it is.

I would follow up this not-so-romantic, incredibly worrying "heart attack" explanation with; "But its like where pleasure meets pain. Like you're all too much whilst at the same time not enough, and its as though my heart physically doesn't know what to do about it".

My heart was orgasming. Constantly, if I'm honest. It made me the most goofy, happy, person there ever was.

I swear I’m never usually this drippy. Ever.

Seriously.

The heart orgasm.

Has anyone else ever landed on this concept? I hope not. I would never believe anyone could feel the same about another, I would bet my life on it. And has anyone coined that term before? I don't even want to Google it.

Ok. I just Googled it.

It appears to be a tantric belief.

Damn, and you read this far already.

But I don’t think its the same thing. I’m not talking about some ‘energy’ or ‘enlightenment’ or something like that. I’m talking about a biochemical, physiological phenomena that is activated in the heart.

I’m sure what I’m talking about is different. Its not something that is instigated, or practiced, its just overwhelming and without control.

I would love for the scientific community to be able to research this theory properly as it has done for the exploration of many other things relating to the human body, for example; "there are more neurons in our stomachs than a cat has in its brain". And so on.

I think the body is such an incredible machine; the brain doesn't just think, the stomach doesn't just digest, and the heart doesn't just pump. Everything is wired up with nerves, neurons, hormones and goodness knows what else.

Now, I understand I am "feeling" this theory out. And the content of this post is by no means scientific. But there have been things I have caught on science documentaries in my life that resonate.

I remember watching a documentary on heart transplants which explored the following stories:

- A 'red-neck' man who had no musical or artistic inclination before a heart transplant, found himself writing poetry and listening to classical music afterwards - much to the disgust of his friends. Himself and the viewers find out during the documentary that his donor was knocked down by a speeding car whilst on his way to a violin lesson.

- A once timid man suddenly found himself doing the most absurdly adventurous and crazy things once he had his heart transplant - his donor turned out to be a stunt man. The stunt man had a twin who visited the transplant recipient during the documentary, he couldn't bear to be in the transplant recipient’s company for more than a few minutes. It was as though his brothers persona was bursting out of this complete stranger and he couldn't take it. To see the twin recoil at some of the recipient’s expressions was quite remarkable, it must have been awful for him really.

Now, I know these examples don't have direct links to my theory; the heart can orgasm, but they highlight that..... I don't know.... I guess they at least highlight that not is all as it seems when it comes to matters of the heart. Its not just a pump.

During the same documentary, scientists rigged up volunteers to a couple of devices; one that measured brain activity, and one that measured heart activity. They then showed the volunteers inoffensive images, and then occasionally showing horrible images:

• A flower

• A happy child

• A sunny day, then….

• A blood-stained kitchen knife

What they found was that the heart would respond before the brain when the fearful image was shown. They theorised that in order to initiate an effective fight or flight response, the heart had to respond first, getting all the necessary hormones / adrenalin etc around the body as quickly as possible to get the body to move. It also makes sense when you hear people after acts of bravery "I was acting on instinct", "I wasn't thinking, I just did it".

Since watching this documentary (it must have been the mid 90's) I now think that the old-style sayings that I used to inwardly scoff at, are suddenly very credible.

Like, the old sayings were knowledge that we had that we foolishly assigned as being stupid nonsense spouted by people who didn't know better. Maybe people did know, much better than us, and we're the idiots:

Thinking with the heart - we now know the heart has neurons.

Thinking with the heart - it is suggested that the heart can interpret messages from the eyes before the brain does.

A gut feeling - we now know the stomach has neurons.

And so on.

Ok, maybe I am running away with myself a little here, but I do think these expressions are scientifically provable. Any others? Please drop in the comments below!!

Anyway, back to my original theory; the heart can orgasm. I would love for this to be explored in a scientifically controlled environment.

The thing about love is, you can't see it, therefore you don't know if someone’s claim of it is genuine/ valid / real. Like, how do I know the love you feel is the same as the love I feel?

I will end by describing how it made me feel in more detail and let you be the judge as to whether or not the heart can orgasm:

• It certainly feels as though love drenches the heart in adrenaline.

• It certainly feels like love drenches the heart in 'feel good hormones', whatever they are.

• It also feels like there are small amount of stress hormones in the mix too.

• There’s this weird, almost pain, feeling. So close to pain, but feels fantastic. It feels related to pain, like if pain had a very lovely cousin or something.

• The net effect of these things is that there is a wonderful, achy, high-intensity fluttering sensation whilst the heart revs itself into the red zone, as well as the feeling of warmth all going on in the heart.

Now that I write it. It does seem pretty legit. Does this make the heart an erogenous zone? Or does the heart have an erogenous zone that we have yet to discover?

What do you think?

If anyone is able and willing to scientifically explore this theory, I would love to hear from you!

Excuse the pun.

Thank you for reading.