Imagine that you see your lover stroll into the room. You think
, "The love of my life!" and then feel your palms begin to sweat
and your heart begin to race... Or is it the other way around?
... Do you sense your sweaty palms and beating heart first, and
then experience feelings of love? In 1884, the great philosopher
and psychologist William James, proposed a radical hypothesis.
He wrote "Common sense says, we lose our fortune, are sorry and
weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by
a rival, are angry and strike." But James speculated that this
sequence is actually reversed - our emotional feelings follow
instead of cause the reactions of our body. He continued, "we
feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid
because we tremble." James claimed that our feelings resulted
from changes in our body state, from the reactions of our
stomach, heart, and other visceral organs. If this is the case,
then our brain must monitor from moment to moment the state of
our viscera, and t