When most people suffer an emotional blow and the pain reaches its limit, they instinctively clutch their chests. Their hearts throb with every beat, breathing becomes difficult, and it feels as though they might die the next moment.
People in ancient Egypt believed that the weight of one's heart determined where the soul would go. Anubis, with his jackal's head, would use a feather to decide where a person went next.
It was a poetic superstition, much like how the ancients believed that a woman's womb contained seven little chambers.
A dissected corpse was already dead, but did living people have some place within their hearts that housed the soul?
And where did that heartbroken feeling come from?
Catecholamines were neurochemicals in the sympathetic and central nervous systems, including norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. Dopamine and epinephrine could make people feel happy, but too much of them could be fatal as well.
The refractory period was the time of rest God had granted Adam and Eve. After bodies mingled like water and milk, dopamine secretion in the human body increased. If no one hit the "brakes" and allowed it to keep secreting, other problems would arise, such as uncontrollable excitement. It could even lead to schizophrenia and elevated blood pressure. That was when catecholamines came into play.
Yet too many catecholamines could also cause many problems, even local necrosis.
Tears were an outlet for emotion. Wanting to cry but forcing oneself not to could easily lead to depression and harm physical health.
For a long time, deeply rooted beliefs had taught people that crying was a sign of weakness, especially for men.
Such shackles suppressed the instinct to cry. While allowing pain and sorrow to gnaw away at our bodies, we also rejected a healthy means of release.
Babies used crying