You can talk yourself into believing you are in love (romantic love ) from afar .. but to determine reality from imagination you need to spend physical time together .
I agree! I feel this is especially true if you haven't met face to face yet. And it's important to meet as soon as possible. Otherwise, it's way to easy to fall into an imaginary state of being. Falling in love with your pre-conceived ideas of the other person. It's like being in love with love, rather than with the person him/her self.
Once you do meet face to face and determine whether there is true chemistry, I feel it's very possible for love to prosper and grow while you're a part from each other. So long as both are equally committed to making the relationship work and eventually eliminating the distance between the two of you. Phone time, face time through video chatting, and visiting each other regularly, are all important things, in my opinion, to help keep an LDR thriving and real.