Trust is surely something we have to build upon with others. But trust is not love.

Trust may not be love, but I think they are connected and that if you love someone there is usually a desire for trust with them and also I think a good "healthy" loving relationship should have trust as a major aspect of it.

Perhaps then love is what we discover when we begin to dissolve the boundaries we divide ourselves behind

I'm not sure anyone really knows what love is, though to me it is similar to the word "care" and if we love something we tend to care about it.
The word love itself appears to be connected to "free" also and "friend", so I think love especially in a romantic sense is connected to wanting the best for someone and not trying to control them.

Why do we feel so close and so loving towards one another when under the influence of some psychedelic drugs? Is it because the drugs miraculously create the love and allow it to shine through us? Or is it far more simply, that the drugs relax those walls that life in modern society forced us to put up between one another?

I think it's probably more of the latter? I can't say for sure though.

What is the reasoning behind many people's ability to love animals so much easier than humans? Is it perhaps because they needn't worry about fearing judgement or ridicule from their pets, and consequently fewer barriers make it easier for them to catch sight of the love that already exists underneath?

Yeah.. I think so.. I've heard so many people say stuff like.. "My dog or cat will never judge me".. So I think that's a major aspect as people seem to fear being judged in a negative manner and want to be "unconditionally" loved if that is even possible.

Why do we love our families so fiercely? Is it because we've spent so much time with them, that our love has grown? Or could it be because the comfort we feel around them to be ourselves, that we may not feel with everyone else, relaxes our defensive boundaries and allows us to experience the love burning brightly inside?

I believe this one is mixed.. And definitely not the same for everyone.. Some people can't stand their family, but in general.. I think maybe there's an aspect of "like kind" and "blood" so to speak that creates a form of loyalty but also the aspect you mentioned similar to a dog or cat or animal which doesn't judge AS MUCH, like a love from a parent can often be so strong that.. They will love you no matter what you do.. For example my mom is like that, I think she's really close to unconditional love.. I could probably go rape and murder and do everything horrible and she would still be there to accept and love me.. Whereas that is much less common the further out you get in terms of relationships with people.

Why does love for a romantic partner often seem to be the most powerful of loves? Is it because sex amplifies love? Or is there any chance it is because our lover is normally the person who knows us the best; who we lower every boundary for; and who we allow to see us naked in both a physical and a metaphorical sense, creating the best opportunity for the full intensity of our love to be exchanged through the absence of divisive barriers?

Good questions and interesting thoughts.. I'm not sure here.. But I do think it is probably similar to the other loves in regards to accepting someone even the "bad" "unpleasant" parts or the parts we don't show to most people. And I think there's perhaps a deeper element there in regards to procreation and even in relationships where there is no procreation a lover in romantic sense is sort of like the most pure mirror we can find, they are not a peer or authority like parents or a submissive like a pet and are similar to a "friend" perhaps but I think even deeper in the sense that we tell them almost everything or at least a lot more than we tend to tell our regular friends.

If love is an underlying current, waiting to be discovered between any two human beings brave enough to break down the walls that lie between them: then how can we take this information and put it to good use in becoming more loving people?

I like how you worded that! I think I need to work on being more accepting in general.. But especially in regards to my search for romance.

Why don't we feel an overwhelming love for the homeless person asleep on the side of the road? Would recognising the barriers we've put in place to prevent ourselves getting hurt by them help us to love them? It would be hurtful, given their position, for us to know that their life is just as important as our own. And yet to understand that their existence holds an infinite amount of possible futures that could shape the world in any manner of significance - just like our own - reveals to us that their life is just as important as our own. It would be painful to accept that we are responsible for the position they've found themselves in. And yet to realise that we've played a role in perpetuating the system that has left them without a roof over their head, would alert us to the fact that we are indeed partially responsible. It would be more burdensome still to accept that we might have the power to better their position, but that perhaps only fear of failure, or of losing some comfort from our own lives prevents us from doing so. And yet if we took a moment we would know that we do have the power and we are making the conscious decision not to help.

This is interesting.. I was just talking about this the other day with a woman on the dating sites and she was complaining about all the homeless people where she lives and I mentioned how I try to give them a lil food or money when I see them and she said I'm just doing it to make myself feel better and I'm not really helping them and.. I responded that she might be right in some ways, but that I just like to help people and I feel like the world needs more empathy and people who want to help others.

And I've also been thinking about this same sort of stuff in a more general sense in regards to how I've spent much of my life trying to help the world whereas most people seem to be all focused on themselves and their new car and house and blah blah blah, but meanwhile we're destroying the planet in our quest for material shit.. And especially after getting more into the spiritual idea that we're all "one" and doing a number of spirit quests with psychedelics I've further gone down that route of believing that we are all indeed sort of "one" even if we are different and unique as well, but that there's something that unites us and that I believe we all come from the same source and are essentially just the same consciousness in different bodies and lifetimes and that if we hurt others or ignore them or love them, then we are either hurting ourselves or ignoring ourselves or loving ourselves in a reflective manner based on how we treat others.

Maybe if more people treated the homeless people and the animals and just anyone and everyone like they were "ourselves" like the Golden Rule and what Christianity and virtually every other major religion has taught then the world wouldn't be so incredibly messed up.. That "separation" from source and loving others like we love ourselves I think is one of the main problems which can be traced back to most of the main problems we face in the world.

Within these three observations, we find the making of three barriers that we rely on to protect us from loving that stranger on the side of the road. Because love and compassion invite the potential for hurt, and the call to action that we'd be far more comfortable ignoring. While I bet there are far more than three barriers between each and everyone of us, identifying them and finding the bravery to overcome them, may be the best possible approach to maximising love in our lives.

Well said.. I highly agree. I think the more we can extend the love we have for ourselves to others the better things will be not just for us, but for others as well as the "collective" state of things on the planet as well.