Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92533 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fresh from her appearance in the 2004 film What the Bleep do we Know!?, scientist and author Pert (Molecules of Emotion) offers stories from her life's work-promoting her Peptide T therapy for AIDS patients and her research on the "bodymind" connection-as the springboard to a confident journey into the far reaches of healing, spirituality and medicine. Structured like a tour diary, the text includes the content of various presentations and lectures given by Pert as well as what she learned before and after each. Each chapter centers on a different presentation and a different audience, addressing the challenge of her title from a number of angles, including "Toxicity, Mood, and Food" in Tuscon, "Self-Esteem, Multiple Personalities, and Forgiveness" in Minneapolis and "Energy Medicine, Coherence, and Connection" in Santa Barbara. Among the familiar (quitting your addiction to sugar, treating yourself with self-affirmations), Pert introduces lots of far-out but practical concepts many readers may never have considered (such as one's unique "money personality" and the meaning of seemingly random "synchronicities"). Warm, accessible and personal, Pert's writing can jar when alternating between conversational story-telling and jargon-studded technical information, but she keeps things moving with plenty of narrative and self-revelation. Though notably lacking an index, the work is well-researched and should hold great interest for anyone who is interested in healing, new age or the esoteric corners of mind-body science.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Dr. Candace Pert is an internationally recognized psychopharmacologist who recently held a research professorship in the department of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She has published more than 250 scientific articles and has lectured worldwide on pharmacology, neuroanatomy, and her own leading-edge research on emotions and the bodymind connection. Dr. Pert’s currently developing Peptide T, a therapeutic for treatment of HIV, and has recently released a new CD package, Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing Your Bodymind, which includes meditations, affirmations, music, and an illustrated booklet. Website: www.candacepert.com

Customer Reviews

Where's feeling Go(o)d in this book?
This was an interesting book to read, but it sure didn't give the reader everything you need to know to feel good or God. It was more of a daily journal with experiences that Candace had, such as massage or guided imagery. If you're looking for a book that gives specific direction, this is not it. This is the meanderings of one person (granted, very smart) and what she's tried as far as different modalities of self realization. And God? He's mentioned a few times, but this book is really 'All you need to know about Candace Pert'. Interesting, but not real helpful.

Mind Becomes Matter
Dr. Candace Pert's book, Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Bodymind Medicine, was a best-seller but it was her appearance in the film, "What the Bleep Do We Know?", that really boosted her popularity as a seminar-circuit science diva. "Mind over matter" is an expression we sometimes use; Dr. Pert has come to believe that "mind becomes matter." As a psycho-pharmacologist who has done her own leading-edge research, Dr. Pert understands the mind-body connection "as a widely distributed psychosomatic network of communicating molecules."

With the assistance of friend Nancy Marriot, who helps her stay still for a few moments at a time, Dr. Pert has written a book that is accessible and full of helpful, healthy advice. Included are her laboratory discoveries and notes from the road, which add lightness, background and humanness to the scientific details. Those scientific details, though, are reassuring. Thoughts and emotions can make us sick or heal us. As an "expert on the biochemistry of how we feel," Dr. Pert believes emotions link us "as physical entities to the divine, making it possible for us to both feel good and feel God at the same time."

In a chapter section called "Receptor-ology 101", Dr. Pert describes the biochemistry that makes up the new-paradigm physiology. The receptor and the ligand (hormones, neurotransmitters and peptides) are the two components that make up the bodymind communication system and are what Dr. Pert calls the "molecules of emotion".

As a writer who engages in various forms of bodywork, including network chiropractic recommended by Dr. Pert, I can relate to and very much agree with what she writes under the heading of "Emotion and Memory." She refers to "core emotional trauma," a term used by some psychologists and healers for buried and painful emotions from the past. "The point of therapy--including bodywork, some kinds of chiropractic, and energy medicine--is to gently bring that wound to gradual awareness, so it can be reexperienced and understood. Only then is choice possible, a faculty of your frontal cortex, allowing you to reintegrate any disowned parts of yourself; let go of old traumatic patterns; and become healed, or whole."

In a chapter entitled, "Toxicity, Mood, and Food," Dr. Pert points out the ramifications of the artificial sweetener aspartame. Her own review of the literature supports "a policy of zero tolerance." The chapter also includes information about inflammation, which shows up in many diseases, most commonly arthritis. While she includes mention of supplements such as bromelain, she also reminds readers that the language we use about our ailments affects the condition. If you say you have a "bad knee," you are "dooming your mind to produce the painful symptoms over and over again." Forgiveness, studies have shown, is helpful for reducing inflammation. Most importantly, a forgiveness of oneself.

Dr. Pert also espouses the healing benefits of music as it can interact directly with your molecules of emotion "to charge you with energy, get your juices flowing, and make you feel good." Throughout the book, she refers to the ongoing work she and her husband, Dr. Michael Ruff, are doing to place their invention, Peptide T, "a nontoxic, highly potent drug for use in the treatment of AIDS," in the marketplace.

The book ends with some questions for book club discussions. It's fascinating stuff, and it's all so affirming. Many of us know of the healing that comes about as a result of positive thoughts and getting in touch with and releasing emotions. Now with the scientific backing, hopefully more people will join the "new-paradigm medicine" movement to aid their health and well-being.

Dr. Candace Pert is an internationally recognized psycho-pharmacologist who is a former Research Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine and Section Chief at the National Institute of Mental Health. She has published more than 250 scientific articles and lectures worldwide on pharmacology, neuroanatomy, and her own research on emotions and the bodymind connection. You can learn more about her work at www.candacepert.com.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Pert inspires by sharing her own experience
I see from some of the other reviews here that people resented her intruding her own life and experiences into the narrative, along with her ideas on a new scientific paradigm about consciousness. She uses her own ongoing life as a framing device here. There is none of the separation one feels in most scientific writing of the self from the science. What a refreshing idea! I felt that what made this book work is that she is honest about her own flaws and frailties and she gives a very complete picture of herself. After reading this book, I would recognize her if I sat next to her in an airplane. Being honest about oneself (and finding the tools to accomplish this feat) is the first and most important step into a different view of life, one that connects us to our potential and makes the idea that the universe is infinite possibility more than just words.