Researchers say giving leads to a healthier, happier life

Post has created a "Love and Longevity Scale" that offers readers practical guidelines for scoring their own habits (20 questions for each of the 10 ways of giving) – and creating their own plans for a more caring lifestyle.

Among the compelling stories is that of Jean Vanier, a former Canadian navy commander who founded the L'Arche Communities – now in 34 countries – where people with and without intellectual disabilities live together. The communities have had a profound impact on thousands of individuals who participate.

"It's abundantly clear from a number of studies that people who live generous lives also live happier lives," says Post, an ebullient man who clearly revels in the work he's doing. "Science is showing us that the transformation toward greater love that is taught in the great religions has an empirical credibility."

Over the past decade, some 500 studies have shown the power of unselfish love. A 2004 study of more than 100 communities by the University of Essex in England, for instance, revealed that neighborhoods with the highest levels of volunteerism had less crime, better schools, and happier, healthier residents. This was true in every case studied, from the inner city to the rural village.

Research on people diagnosed with various illnesses – whether it be HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, or alcoholism – revealed that those patients involved in counseling or otherwise serving others show greater improvement in their own health.

Volunteerism studies have demonstrated such positive results that some people have called for doctors to prescribe volunteer activities.

Post emphasizes, however, that it's not just the activity itself, but the feelings behind the acts that benefit those taking part. "Some people are good to others out of a sense of duty or obligation, but ... it's the love or caring underlying the action" that affects people, he says.

One study on the brain, for instance, involved people being asked to check a box next to the charity that most excites them. "The part of the brain that is deeply emotional lights up – the part that doles out feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine," Post says. "Just when they think they are going to help that organization."

Numerous studies on the brain have provided images that confirm the "helper's high" – the warm glow that people feel from helping activities. But Post doesn't conclude that it's the selfish pursuit of that high that spurs people to be givers.

"It's not just from the chemicals. There is this neurological activity in the human body," he says, "but I think there is a spiritual presence that enlivens and elevates this kind of natural substrate."

He points to powerful examples that show much more than a selfish gene at work, such as the Holocaust rescuers – people who endangered the lives of themselves and their families to rescue Jews – as well as the helpers who rushed to the World Trade Center site after 9/11, and to the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

"When we cope with catastrophic situations, that incredible capacity for widespread kindness and compassion becomes so palpable," he adds.

The IRUL has been funded by the Templeton Foundation and has other major studies under way. Big projects in the current phase of funding focus on "Agape Love and Happiness," "Perceptions of Divine Love," and the "Epidemiology of Goodness."

The institute will then turn very practical, Post says, taking all that has been learned about love and seeing "how it can be applied in interventions to make the world a better place."

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