Your connection of "falling in love" with Satan's fall was thought provoking. The "abandonment of serenity" and "absolute trust" aspects of "falling in love" also resonate a lot with the way many song lyrics seem, to me, to treat the subject. [This could apply to philos, eros, and agape.] ------------- Much of the discussion above, including, Ann', your understandable take on "falling." relates to unwilling losing balance and control and often paying dearly for it [as when I tripped and tumbled head first down a cement stairway a few years ago]. But falling does not have to be completely passive, much less unintentional. The skydiver is not a "victim," for example [unless the 'chute doesn't open]. They tell me that the free fall is a real rush. Celtic Soul, you mentioned "jumping off a cliff." Yes, you fall, but the jumping [hopefully with a parachute or bungee cord or into water, like those divers in Acapulco] is active and deliberate. Remember the touch-feely group exercises where whoever was "It" would allow herself/himself to fall backwards and let the other people catch her/him?* Many who did this reported it as a great personal breakthrough and a real HIGH.**
As you said, Amos, [falling in love] "... is really a river of your own energies, unleashed, the governor uncoupled...".
And, Sharon, don't we all try very hard, or at least want very much, to "fall asleep" each night?
Some of the discussion about falling brings up the distinction between what happens when you fear or resist the fall and what happens when you relax. Drunks often suffer less injury in car crashes than sober people do, because they don't tense their bodies in anticipation of the impact. Cats, too, are really good at falling without getting hurt, compared to dogs, people, and most other mammals.
And how much you get hurt depends partly on what you fall into or onto [a lake vs. cement, for example]. I'm an ice skater, and I would much rather fall on ice than take a similar fall on my living room carpet, because, especially if I'm going fast, much of the energy of the fall is transformed into horizontal motion rather than being absorbed by my bones. Maybe the wise, self-respecting person chooses well when and with whom to allow the "fall."
Ann, you said, "I've always equated "Falling in love" with a sudden, unexpected feeling for some one or thing, accompanied by a change in perspective about your own world and assumptions." I'd agree, but I think this can happen only if you're open to it.
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*Personally, I could never let myself trust other peoples SKILL that much, no matter how much I trusted their intentions. **These were, no doubt, not the ones who got dropped.Most love, I imagine, is "grown" rather than "fallen" into -- a gradual growing awareness of the value of this person or thing in your life.