If you’ve ever felt so strongly about someone that you’re 100% sure that eternal love must exist, take a moment to read our take on the subject.

While it may sound like something out of a fantasy romance novel, eternal love can be a very real thing. That’s why there have been so many successful books and movies about it. Eternal love is, after all, one of the most sought-after things on this planet.

What is eternal love?

Eternal love is basically just a love that never ends. It’s a love so powerful that nothing in the world can stop the strong feelings that two people have for each other. Some people even refer to it as a love so strong that it’s still there even after death.

Can eternal love really exist?

There are many skeptics on this topic. In fact, there are many skeptics on the topic of whether or not love is real in the first place. Obviously those people have never felt this emotion for someone else, because it is truly unmistakable when you do find it.

But while love is a real feeling and emotion, can you truly love someone forever? Or does our biological makeup and instinct to survive and procreate get in the way sometimes? Which is stronger? Love or our DNA? Here are the answers to these complex questions.

All the proof you need that eternal love exists

For all of you folks out there who constantly wonder if love is a real feeling or just a made-up trick used to justify staying with someone for a long time in order to have a family, here’s why you’re wrong.

#1 There’s proof everywhere. You don’t have to be a scientist to see that love exists everywhere. Love doesn’t have to be romantic, either. There are so many different ways you can feel and express your love for different people in your life.

You love your family. You love your pets. You love your hobbies. You love your significant other. These types of feelings can’t be made up and can’t be denied. [Read: 12 real signs of true love in a relationship]

#2 Science even says it’s real. That’s right. You can’t deny the facts of science, people. A study was conducted on couples that were together after 20 years and on those that were newly in love. The research found that the brain scans of each group were identical when shown pictures of their loved ones. This just proves that love is real and can be present even after many, many years.

#3 Love actually changes the chemical makeup of your brain. How else can you explain having such strong feelings for someone that the makeup of your brain is actually altered? Love, that’s how.

When shown pictures of a person you love, your frontal lobe—the part responsible for all your decision-making skills—actually shuts down. You actually do throw all reason and logic out the window in the name of love! [Read: Love chemistry and sparks in love]

So what about eternal love?

So we’ve established that love is a real feeling and actually does exist. But can that feeling last forever? Can the remnants of that love still linger long after both people have left this earth? Here’s everything you should know about eternal love.

#1 It’s not a fairytale. As fantastic as all of those fairytale books sound, eternal love truly can exist in real life. Take the brain scan research mentioned above as just one prime example. [Read: How to fall in love slowly like you’re in a fairy tale]

#2 It’s different from person to person. Eternal love isn’t an automatic thing that feels the same to everyone. Just like each person loves differently, each person also has different capabilities of feeling and finding eternal love.

Some people are simply better than others at being open enough to allow eternal love into their hearts. In some situations, an individual can be so guarded that he or she often skips out on having that kind of connection for fear of getting hurt. That, however, does not mean that eternal love doesn’t exist for anyone.

#3 Our DNA says that we can love multiple people. Our bodies are programmed to do whatever is possible in order to ensure the continued existence of our race.

This means that in order to be able to reproduce, we have to be able to fall in love. And since the existence of our race depends on our ability to reproduce and make many diverse beings, we can fall in love with multiple people throughout our lifetimes. [Read: Polyamorous dating: Everything you need to know first]

#4 But our willpower prevents us from doing so. Now, the above may make it seem like eternal love can’t exist because we can fall in love with different people at any given time. But the unique thing about humans is that our willpower is more powerful than our instincts and genetic code, which allows us to MAKE ourselves only love one person and remain faithful to them – for eternity.

#5 Eternal love is somewhat of a choice. Just as I mentioned above, it’s our willpower that differentiates our ability to love only one person. That being said, having an eternal love is somewhat of a choice.

While we may not be able to control or choose who we fall in love with, we do control that we only love that person and for how long. If we want to love someone for eternity, we have the capacity to do so. [Read: Why relationships are such hard work]

#6 There’s century-old evidence that shows that eternal love exists. I’m sure if you’re a lover of love like myself, you’ve stumbled upon that picture of two 2,000-year-old skeletons buried holding hands.

This is not only proof that eternal love is real and can be felt for thousands of years, but it also shows that it has been around for many, many years and is not something new that we just so happened upon.

#7 The belief of eternal love can change between cultures. Western societies romanticize the idea of love and expand on it as much as possible. But there are also different cultures that downright don’t take love into account at all.

#8 But eternal love is still found within those cultures that don’t believe in love. I’m sure you’ve heard of arranged marriages and how some people are even set up to marry a person from the day they were born. These different cultures don’t believe that love exists, but rather, they’re of the opinion that who they marry and have children with will determine their success.

But then why do we see so many different people running away from their families and these arranged marriages in order to be with someone else… whom they love? [Read: 20 questions to ask each other before getting married]

#9 Eternal love is felt, not seen. You can’t just look at two people and see that they have a bond of eternal love. But you definitely can be in the presence of two people and just FEEL their eternal love for one another.

#10 Overall, YES, it exists. No matter who you are or whether or not you have felt such a powerful love in your life just yet, you can’t deny the definitive proof that eternal love does truly exist in many different forms all over the world. [Read: How to prove that you love someone the right way]

Eternal love seems like it could be something out of our wildest dreams, but the truth is that it’s a very real and tangible thing that could be within our own reach… if we want it.