Molecules of Emotion - Candace B. Pert
Book Description
Why do we feel the way we feel? How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health?
Are our bodies and minds distinct from each other or do they function together
as parts of an interconnected system?
A message from Candace
Hello Readers,
My first book, Molecules of Emotion, is now 9 years old, and I thought it was
time to update you on what's been going on. In 2004 I appeared in the film What
the Bleep Do We Know and spoke as a serious scientist lending my research background
to the notion that we create our own reality. In 2006 I wrote Everything You
Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d with my lifelong friend Nancy Marriott and in it
I explored the further reaches of science and spirituality, another Bleep theme.
Most provocative of recent developments has been my “coming out” as
a scientist to embrace what I experience as God. Some increasingly vocal hardcore
atheists, who fail to make a very important distinction between spirituality
and religion, are claiming their way of thinking should be the cornerstone of
modern medicine and biology. True, the religion vs. science battle has waged
for the past three centuries, but in my new book, I talk about a “new spirituality” that
has nothing to do with the Church, but is grounded in more mystical roots. The
God I embrace is within me and within us all, manifesting as our oneness, our
love and our power. I dare to say that there is a bio-molecular basis for these
qualities and experiences, and that when we are in these states of consciousness,
we feel good.
Some misread my title because they didn’t see the play on “good/God.” If
people want simply to feel good and not embrace their spirituality, they should
go to other books. I’m more interested in the bigger picture that brings
together human emotion, physical reality and a co-created universe. The heart
of science is feminine, I have said, and people like Naomi Judd who wrote the
Preface to Everything know what I mean. Many who can’t embrace a partnership
with God are either looking through a dominantly male perspective, wanting objectivity,
rationality and separation to rule the day or have rejected religion because
of its association with family-induced emotional scarring (all potentially reversible!)
in childhood and teen years. God is not rational, something to be proven beyond
a doubt. God is closer to a feeling -- we sense a field that is still mysterious
to the scientific method I still passionately embrace.
Another development has been the creation of my CD, Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing
Your Bodymind. Psychosomatic Wellness is a practical application of new paradigm
physiology. The CD was scientifically designed to rest and heal your bodymind,
help you alleviate stress, and complete interrupted cellular healing. The music
playing in the background was mathematically transposed from energy wavelength
frequencies and reinforces the verbal guided imagery cues sent to your ears so
all your senses (your bodymind) are experiencing the CD synergistically. On my
website (www.CandacePert.com) the ONLY place the CD is sold, you can listen to
an excerpt from the Introduction.
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Intrigue at the "Palace": back-stabbing, deceit,
shunning, love affairs. This is not the plot to I, Claudius
but the account Pert gives of her time working at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), a.k.a. the Palace. Yet her time
at NIH is not the central point here. Nor are the molecules
of the title, although they do get due coverage. Pert offers
mainly an account of her journey from a conventional scientist
to one who also embraces complementary and alternative medicine.
The journey is long and not without price. She was passed
over for the Lasker and Nobel prizes for her work on opiate
receptors while colleagues were recognized; she believes
that her development of a potential AIDS drug was thwarted
owing to scientific dirty pool as well as her being a woman
in a man's world. Along the way, she took control of her
career, her life, and her personal mission. This is an eye-opening
book for anyone who thinks that people with medical degrees
act more civil or are more altruistic than the rest of us,
though Pert also shows that some do rise above the fray.
Recommended for academic and special libraries.?Lee Arnold,
Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text
refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Pert, a self-described ``catalyst in the mindbodyspirit revolution
in modern medical science,'' and once a chief of brain
chemistry at the NIH, freely intermingles vibrant stories
of her professional and personal life with her theories
about neuropeptides. Currently a research professor at
Georgetown Medical Center in Washington, Pert may be best
known as one of the scientists on Bill Moyers's PBS series
Healing and the Mind. In the early 1970s, she made a name
for herself with her key role in discovering the brain's
opiate receptors. For the next decade, however, owing to
her protests over her exclusion from the prestigious Lasker
Award, her reputation among scientists was more that of
feminist troublemaker than pathfinder. Certainly the picture
she draws here of the science establishment would seem
to suggest a world of aggressive, even ruthless, alpha
males fighting for the top prize. She also traces her own
evolution from competitive bench scientist to explorer
of personal healing modalities. The death of her father,
the end of her marriage, her resignation from the NIH,
her embracing of the Christian faith, and her discovery
of the healing power of dreams--all were, she says, life-shaping
events. Pert also explains her theory that neuropeptides
and their receptors are the biochemicals of emotions, carrying
information in a vast network linking the material world
of molecules with the nonmaterial world of the psyche.
Her views on mind-body cellular communication mesh well
with the concepts of energy held by many alternative therapies,
and she is now, not surprisingly, a popular lecturer on
the wellness circuit. Her final chapter describes an eight-part
program for a healthy lifestyle, and she has appended an
extensive list of alternative medicine resources. Strong
scientific support for the mind-body school of medicine,
sure to rankle those alpha males back in the labs. (Author
tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All
rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
Caroline Myss, Ph.D.
author of Why People Don't Heal and How They Can
Candace B.
Pert...has managed to take the study of the emotional connection
to the body...and present this information in not only an understandable
manner, but an enjoyable one.
Christiane Northrup, M.D. author
of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom
Reading Molecules of Emotion
filled me with molecules associated with joy, inspiration,
and hope.
Dean Ornish, M.D. author of Eat More, Weigh Less
Molecules of
Emotion is a highly inspiring story of the search for the biochemical
links between consciousness, mind, and body that also weaves
in Pert's deeply personal search for truth. Highly recommended!
Review
Lynn Harris New York Daily News Pick up the coolest, smartest,
hardest-core mind-body book I've seen in a while.
In her groundbreaking
book Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert provides startling
and decisive answers to these and other challenging questions
that scientists and philosophers have pondered for centuries.
Her
pioneering research on how the chemicals inside our bodies
form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body,
is not only provocative, it is revolutionary. By establishing
the biomolecular basis for our emotions and explaining these
new scientific developments in a clear and accessible way,
Pert empowers us to understand ourselves, our feelings, and
the connection between our minds and our bodies -- body-minds
-- in ways we could never possibly have imagined before.
Molecules
of Emotion is a landmark work, full of insight and wisdom and
possessing that rare power to change the way we see the world
and ourselves.
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