Ecstasy and Authenticity
It’s strange to think that feelings of love, or empathy, or euphoria might be nothing over and above states of your brain: that the right neural networks, when spurred into action by the right neurotransmitters, just are those emotions. After all, feeling amorous or affectionate doesn’t at all seem the same sort of thing as being "a pack of neurons," as DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick once put it. Yet the resurgence of MDMA, the drug popularly known as ecstasy, is a compelling illustration of how the neural basis for affection can be exploited as a short cut to intimacy.