Love Potion No. 8

Love Potion No. 8 is a love potion sold by an old gypsy woman named Madame Ruth, who operates out of a house at 34th and Vine in Los Angeles… yes, you’ve heard this one before.

The potion is a rare example of homeopathy that actually works: when diluted 1:1000 in water (or milk, apparently), the effects last for around four hours (although it’s peculiar that the size of the dose is never specified, and the duration is that same for humans as well as cats). Those effects are changes to the vocal cords, so that the drinker’s voice now contains micro-tremors encoded within their voice stimulate tiny little hairs in the inner ear of the opposite sex. The hair vibrates, sending a signal along a nerve to the brain, which in turn produces a combination of mood-altering, endogenous chemicals responsible for the biochemical process of falling in love. The same effect makes members of the same sex hostile. Larger doses escalate the effect dramatically.

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Origin: Love Potion No. 8